“I have tried to tell an old story in a new way,” said Professor Edith Hall of Kings College in London as she responded to this reporter’s inquiries. Author of over a dozen books, she a classical scholar, is among Britain’s leading authorities on antiquity.
She has just published “Introducing The Ancient Greeks – from Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind.” And, despite its rather complex expanse of ancient history in about 300 pages, Hall is receiving some pretty nice reviews. Mostly, the praise is from fellow scholars like James Romm and writers like Natalie Haynes. What Romm, Haynes and others point to about Hall is that she lists 10 characteristics that the ancient Greeks were distinguished for. The most important among them according to Hill was that the ancient Greeks had an openness to new ideas.
Almost all Western Civ classes teach that each part of Greece was unique to itself with its own city-state. And, that it became the cornerstone for our Western Civilization. So for example, as most of us know, there were the Athenians (with their love of art, music and beauty) and the Spartans with their complete and total focus on being prepared for war and living totally for the city-state and little else. Hall seeks to explain why the ancient Greeks despite their obstacles (that includes wars with one another) managed to become the great and lasting influence.
“Throughout my book, writes Professor Hall, I try to show the connections between the contributions made to the emergence of outstanding individual Greeks (such as Pericles Leonidas, Ptolemy and Plutarch. And, by the social and historical context into which they were born, and by the 10 characteristics of the ancient Greeks’ mind-set (individualism being one of the 10) that I think defined them as a group.”
Yet, what also makes Hall’s book important as both Romm and Haynes note is her ability to cover such a difficult and complicated stretch of history so comprehensively. This new book covers over three thousand years and more of history. And, of course, Hall gives us a narrative with a bit of humor. As she notes also among those 10 characteristics, the ancient Greeks were “wildly addicted to pleasure.” Hall keeps in view the sense of evolution in the way the Greeks as a people developed amid their islands and mountainous slopes. As she illustrated in one instance, “If the philosopher Aristotle had not been born into a medical family favored by the Macedonian monarchs, whose power was based upon new wealth from gold mines, Aristotle might not have had the leisure, resources, travel and education that went into his intellectual formation.”
Romm explained to this reporter his insight as to why we are still enthralled by the ancients. “Greek culture was immensely appealing both in ancient and modern times because of its unique blend of political, aesthetic and intellectual successes. Pericles said it best in his famous funeral oration: ‘We are lovers of beauty, but we do not therefore become soft or passive.’ (“That’s my translation,” he added). Romm went on to say, “the Greek devotion to art, philosophy and literature might be thought the hallmarks of a meditative or quietistic people.” “Yet, said Romm, the Greeks were also the greatest athletes, soldiers, empire builders and power mongers of their era, constantly in action as they sought new ways to govern, to make war, and to compete with one another.”
“Their combination of what we now tend to see as opposing qualities — vita active and vita contemplative were the two models formulated by the Renaissance — is a rare thing in history, Romm said, and no society has equalled that of the classical Greeks in achieving excellence in both at once.”
Like all enthusiastic scholars and teachers of important subjects, Hall wants to bring the ancient Greeks closer to the audience, showing them in the best full view while still recognizing their humanity. Like us 21st Century people, they had moments of greatness, mixed in with short-sightedness, weakness and failure.
In the final chapter Professor Hall writes, “I have drawn on the work of many scholars during my research into the ancient world.” “Translations from ancient Greek authors are almost all my own, noted Hall. “But in a few cases I have used other translations.” And, just as any teacher enthralled by a subject will do, she encourages readers, students to go beyond what she has presented by providing sources for further ‘suggested’ reading and study.
“Introducing The Ancient Greeks,” is available in hardbound print or paperback. And is also available in electronic and audio formats. For more details visit the publisher, W.W. Norton and Company web site.
